Renewables – solar

5th December 2018

Solar Trade Association’s Aleksandra Klassen and Nicholas Gall have some top tips for UK corporates considering a solar PPA. Compared to continental peer countries, the UK has one of the most conducive regulatory environments for PPAs, with comparatively few regulatory barriers to procuring renewables either from the grid or through on-site generation. Up until the abrupt renewable energy policy u-turns of 2015, and subsequent regulatory uncertainty triggered an exodus of investment, the UK was a European corporate PPA leader. So far this year, BNEF stats indicate that delivery has slowed to roughly 50MW under new PPA contracts. This sounds small, but it represents a similar market size to PPA-driven deployment in Germany, a market burdened by far more red tape. Nonetheless, we heard significant interest from potential clean energy buyers and suppliers for the UK market in 2019, when the hiatus of the last two years is expected to end and post-subsidy solar to emerge at scale.

Lightsouce BP is to deploy more than 300MW of utility-scale solar farms backed by power purchase agreements in the UK, Solar Power Portal can reveal. The farms are to supply power to a series of as yet unnamed corporate counterparties up and down the UK, with contracts having been finalised in the last few months. Speaking to SPP, Nick Boyle, chief executive at Lightsource BP, said that such a level of deployment would see the developer return to the level of activity last seen under the Renewables Obligation. “We’ve gone through huge growth in the UK, then we’ve slowed down, but we’re about to go through huge growth again… We continued to be committed to the UK [and] from our perspective, this market was ‘when’ and not an ‘if’,” he said.

Clients have included Greenpeace, Nuclear Free Local Authorities, WWF Scotland and the UK Government’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management.

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